For the first time since World War II, Japanese combat troops are taking part in live-fire military exercises on foreign soil, joining around 17,000 personnel from several Pacific democracies in 19-day drills in the northern Philippines (an archipelago nation in Southeast Asia with close security ties to the United States). The multinational exercises, known as Balikatan — a Filipino term meaning "shoulder to shoulder" — include Japan firing a cruise missile to sink a decommissioned vessel, marking the country's first missile use outside its borders since 1945. The drills signal a significant shift away from Japan's postwar pacifist doctrine and reflect a broader effort by Asian democracies and Western partners to build collective deterrence amid growing Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea and uncertainty over US security commitments in the region.